• It’s important to implement detailed keywords so Google—and by extension your prospects—can learn what your company is all about.
• One of the ways to improve your level of authority is by getting backlinks from well-known websites within your industry—or even outside of your industry.
• If you have the budget, an SEO expert can help you identify keywords that you’d have a good chance to rank for if you wrote about them.

By Christine Dunne

Introduction

Print companies around the world are unified by a pressing need to get their names out there. After all, prospects certainly can’t enlist your help with printing if they don’t know what services you offer… or that you even exist! Search engine optimization—more commonly known as SEO—is a great way to spread the word about your business and its offerings.

I recently sat down (albeit virtually) with Jeanne Visser, On-Page SEO Specialist & Technical Writer at SEO Assistance by Jeanne and owner of the blog Have Twins First. During our discussion, Jeanne shared some simple steps that print companies can take to improve the SEO of their websites and blogs. The text that follows is an excerpt from our conversation.

Q: What makes SEO so important in relation to other types of digital marketing?

A: With SEO, one of the biggest factors is user intent. If someone Googles a particular phrase and lands on your website, they are likely looking for a specific product or service that you offer. This would be a great customer to get on your e-mail list so you could then perform e-mail marketing and convince them to make a purchase. Meanwhile, social media is a bit different. Even if someone follows you on a social media platform, they might just be looking to see what’s out there. It’s possible that they’re not at all interested in purchasing something or securing a service.

Q: What are some simple steps that small businesses, including print companies, can take to maximize the SEO of their blogs or website content?

A: Let’s assume that someone simply views your website’s homepage. Pretty much every website will include some kind of menu. When Google crawls your homepage, it will evaluate the content that’s on your homepage as well as the menu that is provided. In this case, the details matter. If your homepage only uses basic headers like About, Search, and Blog as well as whatever content you put on that homepage, it will be difficult for Google to understand your precise offerings or specialties. Instead, it’s important to implement detailed keywords so Google—and by extension your prospects—can learn what your company is all about.

Q: Is it important for your keywords to accurately describe your offerings, or is it better to choose less common keywords that will differentiate your company from the competition?

A: On your homepage, it’s fine to use general keywords that describe your business as well as its products and services. The less common keywords that might help differentiate you from your competitors are better suited for specific website content like blog posts. The first step is making it easy for prospects to find you. Once they have found you, then you can highlight all the attributes that set you apart.

Q: When it comes to blogging, what’s important from an SEO standpoint?

A: If you are known to have a high amount of authority in a particular field, it might be easier to rank for different keywords. This is because Google will already recognize your site as having a high amount of authority, so you can further differentiate yourself with keywords. One of the ways to improve your level of authority is by getting backlinks from well-known websites within your industry—or even outside of your industry. It should also be noted that the age of a website will play a role in how much authority it has, so make sure your content is fresh and up-to-date!

Q: What are some other steps you can take to maximize the SEO of your blog posts?

A: Let’s suppose that you’re going to write about printers. There are already a million websites out there that are ranked for phrases like “best printers,” so you need to get more specific. If you visit Google and type in “best printers,” you can identify the terms that are auto-filled in conjunction with that phrase. That will give you a better idea of the terms that people are actually searching for, and this knowledge can help you create a better list of long-tail keywords so your posts get more hits and attract more attention. You can also type in a term and then scroll to the bottom of the Google page to see related terms. This might give you ideas about high-impact topics that you might want to write about.

Q: What can businesses do to improve their rankings for commonly searched terms?

A: Not everyone is going to be willing or able to spend a lot of money on SEO, but it’s possible to make a big impact with even a small budget. For about $100 or maybe even less, you could hire someone to give you a set of attention-grabbing keywords. If you have a bit more money in your budget, you could find an expert who could identify keywords that you’d have a good chance to rank for if you wrote about them.

Q: Do you have any other tips for optimizing your blog posts?

A: In addition to H1 headers, it’s important to use H2 and H3 sub-headers. Once you’ve determined a keyword or set of keywords that you want to use, strive to incorporate those keywords into your headers in a natural way. The word count of your blogs is also important. It’s a good idea to review the top-ranking posts for a particular keyword that you hope to use and determine how many words are in those posts. Then, try to write a post that’s a little bit longer than those top-ranking posts for maximum impact.

The Bottom Line

The text above is only a portion of the full conversation I had with Ms. Visser. If you’re interested in hearing our entire conversation, please visit the Keypoint Intelligence website. Even if you don’t work in the print sector, Visser offers a number of simple steps that your company can take to improve its online presence. You can learn about developing a website that gets noticed, choosing the best keywords, and ensuring that your posts rank higher in Google search results.

Christine Dunne is a Consulting Editor for Keypoint Intelligence’s Office Technology & Services Group. Her responsibilities include responding to client inquiries, conducting market research and analysis, and providing coverage of industry events. Ms. Dunne has written extensively about search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.